Session 2: Marketing and What to Charge Presented by: Linda Formichelli & Carol Tice Introduction: So far, in session 1 you learned about all the opportunities out there, the types of writing and types of markets, what businesses want from writers and how to find these prospects. In this session, we cover two important points: 1) Once you ve found that prospect, how do you market your writing services to them? 2) And once they re interested, how do you figure out what to bid? I. Marketing to businesses: Top strategies that work:
Before we dive into this, let s get the right attitude about marketing your writing business. Marketing is essential. You wouldn t expect any store you visit to stay in business without ever doing any marketing and the same is true of your business. I like to think of myself as a sort of mad scientist of marketing. It s all an experiment! I ll try sending a bunch of these emails what will happen? Bwahahaha If you can have fun with your marketing, you ll be more able to slough off the rejections and stay motivated. To be successful in marketing, you need to have two things: 1) a willingness to do it consistently, and 2) the right attitude. You can t be crushed by rejection every time your LOI doesn t get a response. Instead, think of yourself as a scientist conducting experiments. Which marketing will work? You re going to experiment and find out. Below, we have boiled down the marketing techniques that we and other writers we know are finding most productive to do right now. There s also some firm survey data behind some of our advice. But you ll only know which ones out of these 10 strategies work best for you by trying them out. My main advice on marketing? The best kind of marketing to do is the kind you re willing to stick with and do consistently. Marketing takes time to pay off. Commit to marketing your business as a regular activity, and you are bound to see your income improve.
1. Referrals Referrals are one of the best ways to grow your client base because someone else talking you up is much more impressive than you talking yourself up. A couple of years ago I landed a hospital client through Twitter, and after I finished a project for them, they referred me to a sister hospital in another state. A few thousand dollars for me with NO marketing required. In Ed Gandia s recent survey of more than 1,500 writers, they reported referrals/word of mouth together were the top 2 responses and more than 50% of the total! This is not only an easy way to market, it gets results. So how do you get these referrals? The best way is to simply ask for them. After you've done a project or two for a client, if they seem to like your work, shoot your contact an email asking if she knows anyone else who may need a writer, and whether she'd be willing to give you a referral. That's it! If you do get a referral, whether you land a gig or not, be sure to thank the referee profusely, even with a written card or a small gift. Some people offer money for referrals, but I think that's pretty iffy and don't even want to go there. 2. Passive marketing After simply getting clients to talk you up, the next best form of marketing is what Internet-marketing gurus refer to as inbound marketing. In other words, you set up your website and social-media profiles, and they drive clients to you door. This strategy has paid off huge for me. At this point, I get quality referrals every month, and usually every week, from people who found me off Google searches or through searches on LinkedIn. And I m talking Fortune 500 companies, top ad agencies, and
major private corporations. You will be shocked at the quality of businesses that find freelancers by doing a little online search instead of tapping their own networks. How can you get this strategy working for you? A few key tips: a. Think like a prospect and choose search terms. If you were looking for a freelance writer, what search terms would you use? I decided to target the search Seattle freelance writer, and discovered that was a strong term for me. Many writers goof this up by putting Cindywrites or RBQ Consulting Services as their URL or business name, and these don t position you well for getting found on search. Once you ve decided on your search terms, use them wherever you can in your URL, your site title, your tagline, your body copy. Don t get spammy-looking, but make sure you identify and use the terms you think prospects would use to find a writer like you. For some it may be something like Nonprofit healthcare writer or Atlanta tech writer. b. Keep linking and updating. I am not an SEO expert, yet I m able to top my search. How? All I do is continue adding new links to my writer site as I publish new articles and blog posts, and keep changing my site. I rewrite static pages. I have a favorites bar on my home page that I change to put in new articles I ve had come out. Google likes sites that are actively refreshed. Also consider leaving your writer site URL if you guest post keep building inbound links to your site to help your rankings. c. Work your LinkedIn profile. Stuff your bio and LI tagline with your key words. Also add them to your Skills tabs. These will help you get found in searches companies make within LI. Then, make all the connections you can with relevant people former editors, fellow writers, anyone you know professionally. And come on at least once a week and update your status with something about writing I like to ask around for sources I need for stories, or talk about articles I ve turned in. Having a busy LI profile will help your name come up in search too, if it s linked to your writer site this is another way of improving your rankings. You also want your LI profile to look used and active when people search it up, or they ll worry you re not on LI much and might not respond if they reach out to you on InMail. Speaking of which
3. InMail Everyone knows that LinkedIn has InMail, which lets you directly contact people through LinkedIn without having to go through a connection. And InMails get a 30% response rate, so they're a great way to reach out to copywriting prospects. But there are two things a lot of writers DON'T know. 1 - You can get an upgrade to the Professional version of LinkedIn, which give you unlimited InMails, by going through the LinkedIn for Journalists training, which is free and take about an hour by phone. That way you're not limited to the few InMails LinkedIn gives you with the free version. (Link: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/linkedin-journalists-3753151) 2 - Another thing a lot of writers don't know is that on the right hand side of your LinkedIn home page, you can see who's viewed your profile. If someone viewed your profile who looks like a good prospect for you, you can shoot him an InMail saying you noticed he was checking out your profile and you were wondering if he needed writing help. This sometimes blows prospects away because they didn't know people can see them on LinkedIn. Just be sure to be really clear about why you're writing and how you came across the prospect, because if you get reported too many times LinkedIn will take away your InMail privileges.
4. In-person networking Do you know who gives you writing gigs? That s right people. Live humans. Not computers. This is why it s a great idea to get out and meet live humans at in-person networking events. And I ll tell you a secret it s actually fun! You get out of your cave, have a drink, and meet interesting new people. Don t worry about pushing your services at first just ask others what they do and who their ideal client is. Eventually, they ll ask you the same. You may need to experiment with many networking groups before you find the best one for you. And where you d get good leads will depend on where you re at in your career. Local Chambers of Commerce are great for finding starter small-biz clients. I found I met high-powered clients at Media Bistro events in my town, including the editor of Costco Connection, and the editor of Microsoft Office Live, one of the Internet s biggest sites. One local client I picked up at a MediaBistro event I wrote $350 articles for several years for, that hit the front page of Yahoo. Editors troll writer events looking to meet new writers and refresh their pool of who they know so be there. Writers events are also great for getting to know other writers in your niche. You may think of them as the competition but it s better to think of them as your network. I know a travel writer who was referred a book contract by another local travel writer. Trust me, you want to do this. One tip on how to find good groups do a local city freelance writer search for your nearest town, and see who s on the first few pages of results. Connect with them in social media and ask them where the good networking is. They tend to be savvy marketers and writers you want to get to know. Find out where they hang out, and join them there.
5. Cold calling There s a reason you keep hearing about cold calling in our Internet age: It still works. Make hundreds of calls and simply say, Do you work with freelance writers? and eventually you will hit the lottery. Some writers hate it because you risk being rejected live on the phone and people feel like they re intruding, but those who do it report prospects are rarely rude. Check out our Den call with Sarah Maurer, who did more than 300 cold calls and became fully booked, for a ton of tips on how to succeed at cold calling. 6. Direct mail Out of all the marketing tactics I've tried, I've had the best luck with plain old direct mail sent through the postal service. The first time I did it, I got an 11% response rate of people asking for more information, and ended up with enough regular clients to make a living as a writer along with magazine writing. I wrote a guest post for Copyblogger that ended up being really popular on why direct mail rocks (Link: http://www.copyblogger.com/direct-mail-for-copywriters/). I find it cuts through the clutter of email and social media, and also lets you present yourself in an attractive and professional way. I sent a 2-page sales letter that enticed people to ask for my full Information Kit, and included a reply card the prospect could send in to get the Kit. The Information Kit included a shorter sales letter, samples, a list of my clients, and a fee schedule. The hardest part is figuring out who to mail your letter to. I used a business directory to create a database of likely-sounding local businesses and called to find out who their marketing manager or VP of marketing was -- then I mailed to them. Calling was also
helpful because sometimes I would end up speaking to the decision-maker and then he would be expecting my letter. 7. Warm emails For those who hate cold calling, sending email letters of introduction can be a good way to go. For best results, you want to send a pitch that makes some sort of personal connection, such as: a. You are referred by a mutual friend or acquaintance. Ed Gandia reports the subject line Your friend so and so sent me your way can t be beat for high response rates. b. You research the company and can point out something they recently did. c. You have analyzed their marketing and spotted a missing piece you can call out as a possible first marketing project. We have many Den resources on sending successful business LOIs, including a training from Ed Gandia, and sample warm emails from James Patterson that got gigs. Also check out our Query/LOI review thread for a TON of critique and tips on getting a response from your LOI. http://freelancewritersden.com/forum/queries-pitches-and-letters-of-introduction/ d. (LINDA): Call ahead and ask a few questions. Then you can start your LOI with As we discussed briefly on the phone or I spoke with your colleague X this morning, who recommended I drop you a line 8. Twitter I landed a lucrative hospital writing gig through Twitter, and that's the one that ended up referring me to another hospital as I discussed before. I noticed a local hospital started following me on Twitter -- probably as part of THEIR marketing efforts. I sent a direct message to the tweeter telling him I was a writer and asking who I could talk to about writing for them, and he passed my name along to the marketing manager, who hired me. So if you ever notice a local business following you, do some research to see if they're a likely user of your services -- and if so, drop them a direct mail. You can also follow
local businesses or businesses in your niche on your end, though this may not be as effective as approaching them once they've followed you first. And...if you decide to use this method, you need to make sure your Twitter feed is professional -- no Tweets about drunken parties! Here s how Carol likes to reach out to editor on Twitter: Tweet Are you the right editor to pitch for X thing at X company? This is a nonthreatening, casual reachout that s easy for them to respond to quickly with a yes answer, or to possibly refer you on to the right person. This is how Carol got a $2,000-an-article client a major blue-chip company in financial services. She heard about a new project and that this editor would be handling it. I ended up sending her an infamous 3-idea multipitch query that got all the ideas assigned, for $6,000 off the bat and $14,000 of work in all, as it turned out. http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2011/01/31/query-letter-6000-assignments/ For business contacts, try to identify a likely name at the company LI is a great place to search and then look them up and find their Twitter handle. Searching Google for Twitter Joe Schonsky also usually works. 9. Using Your Network One of the easiest ways to get the word out about your writing is to, well, tell everyone you know! You never know who knows someone looking for writing help. Make a list of all the people you deal with regularly, from friends and relatives to your hairdresser and your former coworkers, and commit to telling all these people that you're looking for writing work.
For people you email regularly, like your friends, relatives, and acquaintances, you can contact them via email. Don't blast out a message to everyone in your contacts list -- that's an invitation to the Trash folder. Instead, write to each person individually. You can use a template for the information about your writing, but keep the rest personal. And don't forget to make the ask! Ask each person if they know anyone who may need writing...ask them to keep you in mind if any opportunities pop up...and ask them to pass your message on to other people they know. Your network is probably bigger than you think if all your friends tell their friends! Finally, be sure to thank everyone who agrees to keep you in mind, who gives you a name of a prospect, or who passes your name along to someone else. You can even send a small gift if someone helps you land an actual gig! 10. Leveraging Your Blog This is really another form of passive marketing you re blogging anyway, but you just take the time to make your blog a good writing sample. Here are my tips on what business prospects look for in a niche blog when they want to hire a blogger for their own site: a. Good design & layout. You don t have a million ads slapped up and things flashing. Your posts each have an image half-column wide at the top, newspaper-style. b. Great headlines. Your headlines should have key words and a quick scan of many headlines should show they are all on the same general topic. Every business blog will want you to be able to generate many ideas on their type of business, so show you know how to do that. c. Good blog style. Your posts have subheads or bulleted or numbered lists. Paragraphs and sentences are short and the posts are easy to scan. d. Engagement. You can demonstrate you know how to get comments on your blog, and people are sharing your posts in social media. You ve got social-sharing buttons up to make it easy for people to do that.
e. Hire me tab. Business owners will assume you just want to blog for yourself if you don t put up a tab explaining that you are available for hire to other blogs. I know writer who started getting clients immediately upon adding a Hire Me page. Read about one here: http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2011/12/14/land-paid-blogging-gig/
2. What to charge The most important step to figuring out what to charge is to make sure your project is well-defined. What will you be doing, by when, how many words will it be? What are the payment terms? Once you have all the basics nailed down, it s time to figure out what you want to be paid. Many new writers just take a blind guess at this, and end up way underpricing. A little research into going rates will pay off big here. We ve got five approaches you can use: 1) Guides like Chris Marlow s & The Writer's Market What to Charge You don t have to be in the dark about what writers are charging for particular types of writing there is data available. Our own Chris Marlow offers survey data on what copywriters make for signing up to her blog. And The Writer s Market also has ranges for many types of writing. These are really starting points rather than definitive answers to your pricing questions they ll give you a range and a general idea of what established pros make. Your entrylevel rates may be lower but don t make them too much lower. It s harder to raise rates later on. I know many writers who started out charging $50 an hour in business writing, and I think that s not unrealistic. 2) Ask your writer network I used to belong to Freelance Success, a website for journalists, and whenever someone wanted to know what a publication paid, they would ask on the forum -- and inevitably SOMEONE would know the answer.
The same works for copywriting. People may not know the budget of the exact business you're pitching, but they may know the range of what's typical in that industry. You can ask on the Freelance Writers Den if you're a member, or on any other forum where freelance copywriters gather. If you do ask someone, be sure not to ask for exact numbers but a range, because many writers don't feel comfortable sharing exactly what they earned from a client. This is why it's so important to network with other writers -- they can be a great resource for you -- and you for them! 3) Ask the prospect what their budget is A lot of writers don t realize that it s not impolite to have a conversation like this, once you ve defined the project: OK, sounds like you need 10 web pages rewritten and want to start posting a blog post weekly. What s your budget for that? Sometimes, they will simply tell you: We have $2,000 to spend. Then you know what you re dealing with right away, and can move on if they say they have $100. They may say it s their first time hiring a writer and they are hoping you ll guide them but you ll be surprised how often this question will give you a ballpark. 4) Guesttimate time to do X by hourly rate With all this talk about how much your clients have budgeted for writing, it's important to point out that you have to figure out an hourly rate that works for you, estimate the time it will take you to do a project, and use that to quote a range that will let you make what you need to make to earn a living.
Erik Sherman at WriterBiz has a great free e-book on the business of freelancing, and in it he gives you the formula to figure out what your hourly rate needs to be. (Link: http://www.eriksherman.com/index_files/business%20planning%20chapter.pdf) That said,it's a good idea to never tell the client your hourly rate -- quote a flat fee or range instead. If you give your hourly rate, this invited the client to nitpick at how you spend your time. 5) Consider the rates you need to earn. Often, I ll hear writers relate a story about how they need to charge a client less because they re just a solopreneur, or their business is just starting, or the owner is ill the excuses are endless. Don t get sucked into sob stories about a company s tough situation. That s not your problem. Your responsibility, to yourself and your family, is to negotiate for a living wage. Here s the reality: You need to eat. If you do not charge a high enough hourly rate, you will go broke and have to go get a job. The other frequent confusion I encounter is writers think, Well, I used to only get $10 an hour at my full-time job, so $20 an hour as a freelancer must be great! But it isn t. As a self-employed person you have WAY more costs you pay your own office supplies, heat, light, rent, travel, health care premiums and more. There is no paid vacation, and many of your work hours will not be billable they ll be spent on marketing and administrative tasks. Everyone s cost of living and responsibilities are different, so what you need to make is a calculation you have to do. But I strongly recommend thinking of $40-$50 an hour as a floor rate you need to earn. My own target is $100 an hour read this post to learn more on why: http://www.makealivingwriting.com/2011/08/15/freelance-writers-100-hour/
The next problem is that when you re new, it s hard to guesttimate how many hours it will take you to do things! You might ask a pro and then add some padding onto their answer to get a rough idea. As you go along, your ability to guess accurately will improve. New writers should try hard to bid flat project rates to avoid having to overcharge because you re slow. This way, the client knows what they re paying and won t be penalized if you are slower than an experienced writer, and you know what you re getting and if your hourly rate ends up low, next time you ll estimate it better. Just learn and move forward.
HOMEWORK: Now that you know what s working in marketing, it s time to start your experiment! Choose a marketing technique or two and contact several prospects. Ask your questions and post results in the Den on the thread for this session: RESOURCES: Check out this great recent post from Six Revisions, complete with sample invoices, on how to create the appearance of more value to get clients to accept higher bids: http://sixrevisions.com/project-management/pricing-tips-earn-more/ For help defining your project and creating an airtight contract that assures you will get paid, see this post: http://www.copyblogger.com/copywriter-client-questions/